I am the former Co-CEO of KP Media, a leading Publisher in Ukraine. In addition to being the leading news organization in Ukraine (Korrespondent, Kyiv Post), we also owned the largest online business, Bigmir.net. I'm now back in the US, consulting and speaking in the areas of Digital Marketing and Digital innovation. You can find my website at www.DigitalTonto.com and follow me on Twitter @DigitalTonto.

Why The Facebook Phone Will Fail and Why It Really Doesn't Matter

For months, the rumor mill has buzzing with reports of a new “Facebook phone” and so last Thursday, when Facebook held an event to announce their new product, the stage was set for the technology world to be completely transformed.

Alas, no. What Mark Zuckerberg unveiled was not a Facebook phone, but Facebook Home, an updated version of a mobile home page. Not a great idea and not even a new idea. The event, in fact, seemed like a non-event. The stock ended the day slightly up, no one raved, yet no one trashed Zuckerberg or his company.

And that’s what makes Facebook a different kind of company and Zuckerberg a different kind of CEO from what we’ve seen before. After a decade of Steve Jobs and the era of the high-impact product launch, I think Zuckerberg will serve as the new model. Out with the showman, in with the hacker.

The Genius of Steve Jobs

Every tech CEO that has the possibility to be considered great needs to be measured against Steve Jobs. Much like Mark Zuckerberg, he exploded onto the scene as a young phenom, but undoubtedly got better with age. He not only built the most valuable tech company on the planet, he created products that defined entire eras.

But what really set Jobs apart were the products themselves. They weren’t just good, they were “insanely great.” He would take fairly ordinary technology that was a struggle to use and reimagine it as something so natural and beautiful that it seemed like something completely different. He strove not just for performance, but perfection.

Every once in a while, I find myself in the presence of purity – purity of spirit and love – and I always cry. It always just reaches in and grabs me.

In truth, Jobs was more of an artist than an engineer. When he launched a new product, you knew you were about to be amazed. Not only would it fulfill a need you never knew you had, every detail would be attended to and nothing would be left to chance.

The Hacker Way

Mark Zuckerberg is no Steve Jobs. He is, in fact, something altogether different, as he made clear in his letter to shareholders:

The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.

Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words “Done is better than perfect” painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.

In other words, Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t really care if Facebook Home is a hit or not and neither should we. It will not lessen the power of Facebook’s massive user base of over 1 billion people nor will it stem the tide of its ad model, which seems to get better by the day. It is merely another shot across the bow and one among many yet to come.

Facebook is one of the great companies of the new century, not because of “killer apps” or even exciting new products, but rather because of thousands of small experiments it runs every day, most of which yield nothing, but which serve to constantly improve user experience and increase revenue yield.

That is, after all, the hacker way. Zuckerberg is not playing chess, where each move will play a crucial role in victory or defeat, he’s questing. He wants to push limits, solve problems and, above all else, to create. To paraphrase G.H. Hardy, he seeks to make a contribution that differs in degree, but not in kind, from that of others who strive to make an impact on the world.

So, while I’m fairly sure that Facebook Home will fail (I’ve been carrying around the Brewster App, which has very similar functionality, for 8 months and usually forget it’s there), but I doubt it really matters. If Zuckerberg doesn’t get it right this time, he will the next time.

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This article feels a bit like the thoughts he made about Facebook. He doesn’t have it completely right, but he keeps trying. It basically sounds like he dislikes the Zuckerberg premise and wants to beat it to death by wasting our time with a ton of idiotic commentary. Why don’t you decide when you would like to become a reporter????

I think it is clear that CONSUMERS are starting to lose interest in Facebook. It is only a matter of time before it goes away, replaced by the new FB. Ala Myspace. All these social networks will come and go. Maybe FB is in for the long haul, but I see Pintrest, etc. replacing them soon enough. Or at least killing their market share.

FB with its millions of idle and inactive accounts, users with multiple accounts for their pets who also do not click on ads is fast becoming if not already passe. A FB phone while may appeal to the teenagers who before they become adults go there and love that place will now allow FB to mobily track people. Many have said it before as soon as the next big thing in Social Networking comes along and it will soon people will desert FB just like they did Myspace.

Good thing Facebook provides real numbers to dispute your “theory” that people have multiple accounts and don’t use the service: • 1.06 billion monthly active users (MAU) as of December 31, 2012 • 618 million daily active users (DAU) for December 2012 • 680 million mobile MAUs as of December 31

Do you click on every google ad? They are still a wildly successful/profitable business. People have been trying to compare Facebook to MySpace for years, they are not alike. Facebook makes money, lots of it and has a huge stash of money in the bank to make acquisitions.

“In other words, Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t really care if Facebook Home is a hit or not and neither should we. ”

That is one hell of a logical leap. I think you are missing the point of iterative development, which is more about admitting that you really can never create a perfect product in such a complex dynamic context. That doesn’t mean you arn’t striving for excellence.